8cm Blu-Ray Discs Planned

Sony and other technology companies working to launch the next generation of DVD format, Blu-ray Disc, are planning to develop a smaller (8cm) version of the disc, Sony have said.

Sony, Panasonic, Sharp and other companies are considering developing 8cm (3 inch) discs for recording, compared with the standard 12cm Blu-ray discs, a Sony spokeswoman said.

There is no schedule for the development or the release of such products yet, Sony and Sharp said.

On Thursday, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported that Sony, Matsushita and Sharp plan to release camcorders based on smaller 8cm discs as early as next year.

The firms will then each release camcorders that use these smaller discs, which will have a capacity of about 15 gigabytes, 40 percent less than standard Blu-ray discs, the report said.

The Blu-ray Disc Association is expected to set technical specifications for Blu-ray discs as early as next year.

Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser to read and write data.

NEC, Toshiba and others have been developing the other version of the next-generation DVD format, HD-DVD.

Blu-ray companies got support after U.S. movie distributor Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. decided to adopt the Blu-ray Disc standard for next generation DVD players.

Shares of Sony ended flat, Matsushita fell 1.2 percent and Sharp added 0.1 percent in Tokyo. The Nikkei Average eased 0.3 percent.

Story source: cdfreaks.com.